Pt. I. Style and methods. The laboratory notebook ; Literature work ; Getting started: outline and first draft ; Writing style ; Writing techniques. -- Pt. II. The components of a thesis. Title, title page ; Dedication, preface, acknowledgments ; Table of contents ; Abstract ; Introduction, definition of the problem ; Results ; Discussion ; Conclusions ; Experimental section ; Bibliography ; Appendices, miscellaneous other sections. -- Pt. III. Special elements. Footnotes ; Numbers, quantities, units, and functions ; Mathematical expressions and equations ; Tables ; Figures. -- Solutions to the challenges.